Bach grins, grabs Bingles by the arm and... rolls a 1 on his athletics check...

Bingles flys briefly... and rolls a 1 on his check, falling head first into the camp fire.

Meanwhile the giants lay into Kethra, hard! Anya launches an arrow between the giants, and causes a sudden growth of thorny vines to wrap around the trunk like legs of the giants. Guy, seeing the beating Kethra took, causes an inky purple cloud to form around the giant's heads. Nessendra runs up behind Kethra to heal her.

The giants ignore the thorns that tear at their legs, and step out of the cloud to bash Kethra and Nessendra.

Bach snipes with his eldritch bolts, Bingles rolls out of the fire, and charges in. Anya continues to send magic arrow after magic arrow into the melee. Kethra swings her club again and again at their knees, mostly bouncing off their hairy legs. Guy shifts the cloud around to try to block their views, and then closes behind the giants to poke them in the back of their knees. Bingles joins him, stabbing with gusto!

Eventually, they fall...

Camp is moved, and they bed down for the night. Aside from a light rain, things seem to be quiet during the overnight, until just before dawn (why are almost all the encounters right before dawn??) when a flash flood comes roaring down the rover valley. Everyone is ok, except Nessendra who gets swept briefly into the river, taking a bruising ride over several large rocks before pulling herself out. Collecting their things, they realize that Zugun has also been washed away!

They backtrack along the river for hours before finding the coffin washed up on the shore. Hours later, they're back at their old camp sight, and hours after that they spot a cabin... Hanging from the trees numerous animal skulls hang from braided vines.

"Careful!" Riia warns. "Killer trees..."

Bingles, followed closely by Bach ignore the warning and march right up to the porch stairs, and as they reach it, the door opens. A brown boar with intelligent eyes snorts and steps out, followed by an old crone with tight curly white hair. "What do you want?" she croaks. The party asks about the flat mountain top. "I know of it, though not where it is exactly..." she looks over the group. "I can tell you what I know, but I need something first. A giant's thumbnail."

The party sighs... another side quest... The witch describes the homestead of a family of giants not too far. They head off... back to where they'd already killed the two giants. Sadly, the flash flood seems to have carried the bodies away. By this time it's already full dark. They opt to continue, hoping to come across the giants asleep...

And they do! The massive cabin is dark and mostly silent, the only sound being the snoring that rumbles from behind the curtained windows. Most of the party keeps its distance while Guy and Bingles sneak around, scouting it out.

The cabin was divided into 2 rooms, the larger being the one that Guy and Bingles could actually look into. Within was an assortment of giant sized furniture, mainly a massive table and chairs, and also 3 sleeping giants. Two larger females in one corner, and a smaller male with a weird tentacle arm in another.

Guy stealthily crawls in through a window, dropping silently to the floor. Rapier in hand he stands over the prone giant, and repeatedly stabs him in the throat! The giant makes one desperate flailing attack, gurgling softly as he drowns in his own blood. One of the females grunts and rolls over as the male expires. Bingles, having only just pulled himself onto the window sill tosses Guy his handax, which is swiftly put to use lopping off the giants thumb. Guy then leaps over Bingles through the window, making a perfect landing, arms raised, ax in one hand, thumb in the other! Bingles drops from the window sill behind Guy, and the two of them hustle away from the cabin.

Returning to the witches cabin, she happily accepts the bloody thumb. In return, she tells them of an ancient stone bridge that spans the river another day or two further into the mountains. She thinks it might take them where they want to go... the party inquires about potions or magic items. She sells them some healing potions, and a potion of giant strength, as well as a pair of magical boots.